Heritage Middle School Students to Participate in “Waste Not, Want Not” 2016 Future City Competition

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from Heritage Middle School are participating in the State DiscoverE’s Future City Competition™ on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, at Columbus State Community College (CSCC) in Columbus.

With the help of their teacher advisor, Kristine Konik and a local engineering mentor, the Heritage Middle School team is building a concept model of a city of the future, writing a narrative and developing an essay on the topic of “Waste Not, Want Not.” The topic challenges students to think about how to design waste management systems for residential and commercial use, by considering waste reduction, reuse, collection, separation, processing, recycling, related health and safety issues, energy efficiency, environmental impacts, and cost.

The Ohio region winning team (three students, a teacher/advisor and an engineering mentor) will receive a trip to Washington D.C. to participate in the national finals on Feb. 12 -17, 2016. In 2015, Batavia Middle School won the opportunity to go to the national competition where they earned the Best Use of Innovative Construction Materials and Techniques Special Award.

Teams are eligible to compete for awards in a variety of categories including: infrastructure, recreation, transportation, use of recycled materials, use of water resources, engineering, most insurable city, rookie of the year and people’s choice. The Ohio regional competition is sponsored in part by PPG, AEP, Ohio Association of Litter Prevention and Recycling Professionals, Xylem, CSCC, Ohio EPA, Ohio University’s Russ College of Engineering and IBI Group.

The Future City Competition is a national, not-for-profit education program. Across the country, more than 40,000 students from 1,350 middle schools typically participate in the competition nationwide. For more information contact Future City Ohio at www.futurecity.org/ohio.

What began in 1992 as a model project to encourage math and science skills and lay a foundation for engineering careers has become the nation’s largest engineering education program.

The Future City Competition introduces students to different engineering fields, such as civil, electrical, chemical, agricultural, biomedical, mechanical, computer software and hardware engineering. Competing also gives students a chance to improve writing, public speaking, teamwork, time management and problem-solving skills while developing new computer skills. Above all, Future City enables students to turn their visions of the future into simulated reality.

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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. Since then, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling.